The Changqing oil field is an oil field located in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

. It was discovered in 1971 and developed by China National Petroleum Corporation. It began production in 1975 and produces

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

. The total

proven reserves Proven reserves (also called measured reserves, 1P, and reserves) is a measure of fossil fuel energy reserves, such as oil reserves, natural gas reserves, and coal reserves. It is defined as the " antity of energy sources estimated with reasona ...

of the Changqing oil field are around 23.8 billion barrels (3400×10⁶tonnes), and production is centered on . Changqing is the largest oil and gas field in China.

History

In 2015, the CNPC announced the discovery of 100 million metric tons of tight oil geological reserves in the Changqing field (733 million barrels of oil). It was the largest discovery of tight oil in the history of China. In 2020, it passed the 60 million ton mark in annual production (24.52 million tons of crude oil output). 50 cities in China rely on this oil field. By 2020, Changqing had also produced a total of 468.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas. In 2013, Changqing had passed the 50 million mark in annual production (23.58 million tons of crude oil).

Controversies

In October 2020, 20 employees were arrested for stealing oil from the field. In March 2021, the chief coordinator and head of production of Changqing oil field placed under investigation for receiving millions of yuan in bribe money.

References

Oil fields in China {{oilfield-stub